FIGURE 36-1
Morgan Spurlock experimenting with a diet of McDonald’s in Supersize Me.
After your training period you have to make the difficult transition into paid employment. Even if you have established a top-notch reputation for craftsmanship and reliability, you will probably have to struggle for a subsistence living while you get established, like most people in the arts.
For these two final chapters I consulted the career development specialist Dirk Matthews of Columbia College Chicago, and Tod Lending, Academy-nominated director of many PBS films (www.nomadicpix.com). He is an old hand at writing proposals for grants, foundations, and broadcasters.
During Dirk’s decades of placement counseling, he has tracked thousands of arts students setting out to find professional employment. He stresses the need for patience and realism: “Those seeking employment need to understand their strengths and weaknesses, and by leveraging these, can find a rich and rewarding career … There are a multitude of options in work and careers for those who study documentary.” The first step is to “have students complete a variation of a SWOT analysis, an evaluation of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats” (see www.businessballs.com/swotanalysisfreetemplate.htm). For the beginner there are “many differences between employment and a career. A job can be the big break, or just a means to an end, to pay bills.” In other words, expect to zig-zag through related work to eventually get where you want to go. “In film school, students tend to be limited by the concentrations they are taught (cinematography, post-production, etc.) and lose sight of the fact that there are wider assortments of secondary and tertiary careers to those tracts of study … Areas where they are successful are actually the areas where they are using their strengths in an authentic way … Given the rapid growth of technology and social networking, students graduating today may be working in careers that haven’t even been created… Only a few years ago the idea of someone being hired to primarily work on social media would have been unheard of. Now, the title of Social Media Manager, or something similar, is a fairly common job in areas of film, marketing, and even journalism.”
Establishing yourself as a documentary director begins with the work you have to show from your education period, as well as the networking and forward planning you have accomplished. You will need to be in love with the filmmaking process, so that you eat, sleep, dream the search for subjects and for unique treatments for them. You will need to keep seeing and making films, and to read, think, study, and argue your way into possessing a combative and original mind.
With good skills and some effective short films to show for it, we can fast-forward, perhaps to the point where you have gained an award or two. By now people in the local film industry may know you, especially if some have been your teachers in film school. To earn a living, you will need to have established a solid gold reputation for (a) reliability and professionalism, and (b) professional competency and dedication as a craftsperson in one or more of the key documentary areas:
● Camera (DP, operating, lighting, or gaffer skills)
● Sound (recordist and/or microphone operator, or sound design)
● Postproduction (editor or sound postproduction)
● Production (producer, production manager, production secretary, or assistant director)
You should be able to earn money at crewing, or in some associated craft, while you deploy a long-range plan to equip yourself for directing. Expect to learn hugely from friends and associates while you amass life experience in the field.
The film industry, of which documentaries are just a part, is a set of linked villages. You get work by networking through personal connections with friends, associates, and professional contacts acquired during schooling and internships. Established film schools have alumni associations or other, less formalized networks in the major film centers. Through warm recommendations by teachers and contemporaries, you should be able to plug into these networks and get interviews and advice.
All film work is intensely social, and documentary in particular is not for shrinking violets. You have to go out, meet people, and get to know your way around. Finding work is much like researching a subject: it requires you to waylay people, tell them what you do, ask for help and advice, and offer your services. There is nothing inherently cheap or dishonorable in this, but most of us start out shy and fixated on avoiding rejection. If you think this is tough, ask a few actors what they go through at casting sessions.
There are regional and national differences in the film and television industries, but developing as a freelancer is similar everywhere. A long time ago, some interesting facts emerged at a colloquium given at Columbia College Chicago by former film students. All were working professionally, and all,
● Took about the same (long) time to get established and to begin earning reasonable money.
● Had moved up the ladder of responsibility at roughly the same (slow) pace.
● Found that greater responsibility came (suddenly) without warning.
● Were scared stiff when it came, feeling they were conning their way into an area beyond their competence.
● All grew into their new levels of responsibility.
● All loved their jobs and felt privileged to work in an important area of public life.
Unless you can count on family help, your paid work may for a long time lie in fulfilling mundane commercial needs. That is, you will expend lots of imagination and effort crewing for industrial, training, or medical films; or shooting conferences, graduations, and weddings. Society always needs craftspeople that can make things and provide services of value.
Consider the nonfiction offerings of the Internet streaming service Hulu: sports, design, real estate, food, pets, children’s shows, news and information, cars, how-to, how it works, mechanics, history, intervention (people confronting their worst demons), arts and culture, comedy (clubs and open mike nights), LGBT community interest material, and on and on. Someone has to dream up fresh ideas for that growing cornucopia of human interests. Someone has to form the entrepreneurial alliances, groups, companies, and film units that generate and sell the content. Why not you?
Developing the ability to complete all kinds of projects reliably, inventively, and to high standards will give you satisfaction, higher-level skills, and confidence and pride in your capacities. Each new level of accomplishment brings recognition, so that you and your associates can seek ever more interesting and demanding work. A similar training, after all, served Robert Altman and many another director very well.
From your best and most applicable work, custom-build a reel for each different job application, and include a descriptive hand-list. A wide range of pertinent work is a showcase for your experience and flexibility. Your reel should show your professionalism and include both work initiated by you, and work done for others—each identified for what it is. Always be sure to give credit to others where it is due. “To start building a reel,” says Dirk Matthews, “review each project you have worked on and choose the strongest scene. What best showcases your talent in each project? Maybe it is your best camerawork, or the moment where all elements of the film gelled together. After you have a few scenes, these can be cut together, starting with best work.”
“YouTube is not the only place to upload a reel. While it is a great platform for social networking, there are many, many distractions in the design. Someone may be watching your reel, get distracted, and click on the video of a cat riding a dog, or the latest movie trailer that pops up in the sidebar. Vimeo is a platform with better online compression and far fewer distractions. It is good to have your reel on both, but think of where on the internet to hang your shingle so that people can find you and view your work.” Dirk believes one should start promoting one’s next film in preproduction, “through social media, press releases, building a website for your film, etc. Ideally, you would have some festival, market or distribution interests in the works while you are shooting. This is where a marketing person or a publicist is well worth an investment. There is also a whole new market for online distribution. Snag Films is just one example (www.snagfilms.com).”
Dirk says, “You will be Googled when you apply for opportunities, promote a film, or seek distribution.” So,
● You want more than just Facebook and social media links to show up in the search results.
● The more professional your links and sites, and the better you update them, the better your online presence supports your professional endeavors.
● Purchasing a custom URL is a great way to assemble information and links about yourself. Its address should be on every business card, résumé, or cover letter you send out professionally.
Once you are on the web, self-reflection is important. If you use it irresponsibly, readers may think you hate your work and care more about food and drinking. Using the various platforms responsibly, on the other hand, can demonstrate your ability to network and build relationships. Knowing who you are, what types of opportunities you want, and articulating this concisely will help you get the results you want. For potential collaborators or employers searching among your records on the web, there are many ways to establish your identity:
● Social networks (Facebook, Google +, Twitter, Instagram, etc.)
● Professional networks (LinkedIn, or see a list at http://www.sitepoint.com/social-networkingsites-for-business)
● Online profiles (these are more about a static view of your résumé)
● Online portfolios (reels, websites, etc.)
The film and television industries are downsizing permanent staffs and employing freelancers. This means opportunities for small, self-starter companies, but—wouldn’t you know it?—work usually goes to those with a record of accomplishment. For the novice this is catch-22. Your investment in your future is the films you made at school, or have made since then at your own expense. If you have a passion for stained glass, for science, for alternative power systems, or for medieval farming, then your work and self-promotion should clearly evidence your enthusiasms. Your areas of passionate interest can lie anywhere—ornithology, teaching, ghosts, or the politics of water supply in the Third World. Use the work you’ve done to introduce yourself to individuals or organizations with interests that parallel your own. Almost certainly they will recognize you as one of their own, and sometimes before you know it, you’re in another country doing the kind of useful work you always dreamed of. Okay, you’re working for expenses only, but you’re racking up demonstrable experience for your résumé and demo reel, which in the early stages is what counts most.
Along the way, expect to meet hard times, lose jobs, encounter discouragement, and live on the edge. You may find you are inordinately good at sound, and stay with it. Or that you have a penchant for the more studious and solitary life of the editor (my passion). Perhaps directing is something you find you can gladly put off till the future.
However hard the life is, you will never have to wonder why you go to work every day. In what other profession could the activist Morgan Spurlock (Supersize Me, USA, 2004, Figure 36-1) take on the McDonald Corporation and convulse the world with horrified laughter? Where else could he go looking for America’s “biggest enemy” equipped only with a “hasty round of survival training, a camera, and his trademark mustache”? (Where in the World is Osama bin Laden?, USA, 2008).
While crewing you must develop ideas for your own documentaries, which means looking for subjects and treatments that will demonstrably attract a sizable audience. Documentary markets are evolving, and audience appreciation for the genre is maturing. TV and cable networks now show independently produced documentaries, but rely increasingly on international co-productions to share the high cost of any series with worldwide appeal.
Check out your particular areas of interest at film sales and rental websites. Make a study to see where gaps exist in the existing commercial structure, gaps you could fill. Make yourself current by seeing everyone else’s work, especially at festivals, which are really job-fairs for filmmakers. Much of what you will see acts like aversion therapy—it tells you the subjects and treatments that are overused and clichéd. College-age filmmaking, for example, seldom thinks beyond a collegeenclosed audience. Instead, study how experienced filmmakers present themselves to see what you can learn.
The vast majority of proposals are imitative and stereotypical because their writers think no further than a “good subject.” They fail to develop individual approaches, original and critical thematic ideas, or to question what makes pertinent and arresting film art at this moment in history. These come only from the actively original mind, and tend to win immediate recognition, both by funding committees and audiences.
On your way to developing high abilities, seek colleagues or doc makers at large who are willing to exchange pitches via Skype. One learns the most from critiquing other people’s performances, and getting them to respond to yours. You don’t need to physically meet, only to have a pitch and a demo reel with which to practice via YouTube (see “BBC documentary pitch demo”).
With each pitch and grant application, have ready an edited demonstration reel of around 3–5 minutes maximum that shows the most attractive and intriguing aspects of your proposed project. A good reel can often clinch a jury decision in your favor because it argues powerfully and briefly for both the foundations of your project and for your proficiency. It is the taster morsel that shows the best you have shot. If it has great landscapes, or a gritty industrial setting, include a montage of the best shots. If your film is character-driven, assemble material to establish in a minute or so how attractively interesting and unusual your central characters are. Make certain your demo reel is accessible, and plays faultlessly from beginning to end, online or offline.
Study up on everything available on grants, funds, and grantwriting. Think of it not as tin-cup begging, but as your best shot at communicating your vision and originality. Remember, you are what you write, so develop the very best proposals you can produce, equip yourself with a firstrate demo reel, then try your luck—and keep trying. Stellar performance never happens by luck or “talent”—it happens through practice, application, and heart-and-soul involvement. Remember, you are not competing with colleagues, but aiding and abetting them—and they, you. Give and seek critical feedback, and build on each other’s critical acumen. Really good, fresh proposals are rare because so few people really work at it. If you propose excellent, unusually realized projects with a clear dramatic form, they will stand out from the crowd.
The long established Independent Feature Project (IFP) has good funding ideas and information on its website (www.ifp.org). Each year, public television in the USA throws out The Doc Challenge in which filmmakers from around the world have five days to make a short nonfiction film. The top 12 films, determined by a panel of judges, premiere at Hot Docs in Toronto, the largest doc film festival in North America. This competition allows film students, emerging filmmakers, and seasoned pros the opportunity to make a great documentary and to win cash prizes, free services, and the chance to screen at festivals (www.pbs.org/pov). Undoubtedly other national broadcasting organizations are making similar offers as they reach out for the talented work being made on the periphery.
At documentary festivals, you may be able to win funds and encouragement by coming armed with interesting approaches and ideas. If you have cornered the rights to a “hot” subject, you might get offers of partnership from established concerns, which can also be a good deal. Get legal advice in creating partnership agreements1 and be very careful not to get swallowed up. See what TV networks and distributors advise in relation to proposing “your” kind of films. The Independent Feature Project website has much good information on all aspects of producing as an “indie” (www.ifp.org), especially the financial aspects. It even advertises job openings and publishes requests for specialized partnerships.
Go to pitching sessions and get a feel for what it is like. At those held most famously by the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam, Hot Docs in Toronto, Points North Pitch in Maine, and Op Docs in New York, hopeful producers pitch ideas and undergo a public grilling by a panel of commissioning editors, who may or may not subsequently buy into the project. Pitch an idea of your own if you can.
Sessions are popping up everywhere, and TV organizations that show or fund documentaries—such as PBS, ITVS, BBC, BritDoc Foundation (Channel 4), CBC, Al Jazeera—each have their own support website with examples and advice to help attract good proposals, which they insist are forever in short supply.
Festivals adore good short films, and can never get enough. It takes style, originality, and discipline to say a lot in a short compass, yet most documentary beginners try to hole-in-one (to borrow a golf simile) with documentary of stupifying length and ambition. It takes forever to finish, uses up all their resources and optimism, and is nearly always a huge, costly, and dispiriting mistake.
Why waste years making a 90-minute monster, when you could use the same resources to make nine crisp, funny, searing, and thoughtful 10-minute films? Each will have a new cast of characters, and each will improve on the last since you learn so much from finishing cycles of production.
The Internet ought to be a good labor exchange, and at least one film job site is open for searches (www.media-match.com). Services like this exist primarily to make money for their organizers, and are by no means a passport to employment. But if you are the only filmmaking primatologist in your area, you may have the very skills that someone needs. Tim Curran’s FAQ, which speaks autobiographically, may also be helpful (www.timcurran.com). I found it, and a great deal more, by entering “documentary” and “career” in Google. Two other good sites are Indeed (www.indeed.com) and Mandy (www.mandy.com).
Information about the non-Hollywood film industry and expectations for independents can be found at the IFP (Independent Film Project, www.ifp.org). The Salt Institute (www.salt.edu) specializes in documentary stills and sound work for sociologists, and you may find diary and blog items there to stimulate your ideas. Ethnography, sociology, ecology, and many other disciplines are sometimes interested in co-production. Go to their conferences, and network like crazy. Almost certainly you can emerge with partnerships in the making.
Dirk adds that, “students can sometimes call or email a company or professional individual and ask for some time to find out more about the industry. They should not ask for a job or whether they are hiring, but instead ask along the lines of, ‘what is the ideal employee’ or ‘what type of entry level positions do you hire?’ … It can be a good way for students to put themselves in front of a professional without asking for job. The result is a connection, more information, and a possible professional mentor.”
If you mean to approach anyone in an organization, first learn all you can about the individuals in it and their business. When you send your résumé, send it to a named individual with a brief, carefully composed, individual cover letter describing your goals. Be sure to say in what ways you might be an asset to their business, group, or company. After a few days, call to ask if you can have a brief chat “just in case something opens up in the future.” If you are invited for a chat or formal interview,
● Dress conservatively.
● Be punctual to the minute.
● Let the interviewer ask the questions.
● Be brief and to the point when you reply.
● Say concisely what skills and qualities you have to offer. This is where you can demonstrate your knowledge of (and therefore commitment to) the interviewer’s business.
● Never inflate your abilities or experience.
● Know what you want, and show you are willing to do any kind of work to get there.
● Leave an up-to-date résumé with a link to an online demo reel.
People who deal with job seekers can tell the hardworking realist from the dreamer. They know this from how you present yourself—on paper and in person. Interviews often conclude by asking if you have any questions, so have two or three good ones ready that demonstrate your knowledge of, and interest in, the interviewer’s company, group, or enterprise.
If shyness is holding you back, do something about it. Time will not liberate you. Get assertiveness training, join a theatre group, or sign on for an improv comedy class and die a thousand deaths making a fool of yourself.
1. See Lisa Callif and Michael C. Donaldson, The American Bar Association's Legal Guide to Independent Filmmaking (American Bar Association, 2011), and Philip Miller, Media Law for Producers (Focal Press, 2003).